Today’s Weight: 261.4 My back went out last week, forcing me into a sedentary state. If I’m not exercising, I’m not losing – a fact I’ve learned about myself. Sigh.
Last week (before I threw my back out) I took my ten-year-old for a mother/daughter outing to Wendy’s, her favorite place to eat. Standing in line, I overheard a man and a woman talking behind me. She was trying to decide which of the items on the dollar menu she wanted, and finally settled on a junior cheeseburger, chicken nuggets, and fries. Her husband said to her, “If you want fries, you’ll have to put one of those other things back. You need to lose weight.”
Not three minutes later, he announced what he planned to order, followed by, “And I’ll have two Frosties, I think. I could really use some chocolate.”
It was all I could do not to turn around and say something about double standards and why does he get to be fat when she doesn’t . . . but I held my tongue. It was hard. I’m very opinionated.
As soon as my daughter and I were back in the car, I took that opportunity to talk to her about what we had overheard. I’ve been concerned for a long time about the rising trend toward domestic violence and emotional abuse, and have spoken to my daughter frequently about choosing friends and boyfriends that make her feel good about herself (so it’s completely embedded in her brain by the time she’s old enough to date.) As we drove home from Wendy’s, I talked with her about food, and how no one should be allowed to criticize your weight the way we had seen at the restaurant.
Just what is society’s obsession with food, anyway? We choose who we’ll date primarily based on their physical appearance, and then chastize them if that appearance changes. We celebrate every holiday with a feast of some sort, we plan whole afternoons around our grocery shopping, we head for food when we’re scared, nervous, or sad, and when things are going really well, we go out to dinner to celebrate. But then, if we put on a pound or two, we obsess over everything we put in our mouths. We analyze labels, we put our food on scales, and we count calories and carbs as though they were pieces of gold. Yet we tell our children to clean their plates, not allowing their natural “full” instinct to kick in, thereby teaching them to overeat.
I would love to live in a society where food is regarded as a means to support life, not life itself. Where there’s not a fast food restaurant every thirty feet, and where we have to go home and prepare food for ourselves. Where we celebrate with feelings and emotions rather than chocolate and pasta. I have yet to discover such a place, though – every culture on this planet has a feast of this, that, or the other thing. You know what, I’m willing to bet if I could find a society like that, all the inhabitants would be slender.
Tristi Pinkston is a full-time blogger in Media Reviews and Movie Reviews. You can read more of her opinionated opinions by clicking here.
Related Blogs:
Weight a Minute! Tristi’s Story
Weight a Minute: Lookin’ For Love in All the Wrong Places
Weight a Minute: the Power of Protein